The present invention relates to a fault diagnosis apparatus for sensors in an electric system having three or more sensors, and in particular, to a fault diagnosis apparatus for sensors used in vehicles, power plants, industrial machines, chemical plants and the like.
There has been disclosed condition detection means, that is, a fault diagnosis apparatus for sensors in which a second sensor is provided in addition to a first sensor; the first sensor converts a first physical quantity indicating a behavior (physical phenomenon) of a vehicle into a first measurement signal, and the second sensor converts a second physical quantity indicating a behavior of the vehicle which is different from the first physical quantity into a second measurement signal. Calculation means calculates an approximate value corresponding to the first physical quantity on the basis of the second measurement signal. The calculation means then compares a measurement from the first sensor with the approximate value based on the second measurement signal to determine whether or not the first sensor is faulty (for example, JP-A-5-37428).
This fault diagnosis apparatus is incorporated into a vehicle multiple-transmission apparatus comprising a sensor node that transmits the measurement of the first physical quantity as communication data, on the basis of the first measurement signal.